Feasting & Fasting Part 3: Preparation for the Feast

We’ve finally made it to the main course and are ready to talk feasting. So at this point you’re probably hungry and wondering what there is to talk about. We all know “feasting” and need no instruction on the subject, right? Yet in our culture, where food is so much more than sustenance, I wonder do we really know feasting or is it just another day of eating? If we look to the Bible, feasting is always associated with a celebration or a holy day. It’s important to understand that although a celebration may include feasting, the feast isn’t usually the focus of the celebration. Some may come to a wedding just for the food, but it’s not really the purpose of the feast. The wedding feast is meant as a part of the marriage celebration. Likewise a Biblical feast is usually a part of remembering something significant from the past, like the Passover Feast celebrates God’s provision for the exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Feasting is a time for remembering God’s goodness to us and realigning our hearts with his.

I don’t mean to imply we are entirely lost to the idea of meaningful feasting in our culture, yet undeniably our most celebrated holy days have been adulterated with Santa and the Easter Bunny, skewing much of our focus from God, and for many of us, most every day could classify as a feast day, therein diminishing the excitement of true feasting. We are so abundantly blessed with food, we have become both finicky and gluttonous, while the idea of eating for sustenance sounds unnecessarily harsh and unpalatable.

For most Americans, our daily diet includes foods we select based on their ability to please our palate. We aren’t so unlike those complaining Israelites, tired of manna and wanting an assortment of vegetables and fish. I certainly can’t claim to be above this, especially considering the immense effort I’ve invested into perfecting flourless baking, yet I do recognize the negative toll it’s taken on our society…physically, emotionally and spiritually. We are not designed for perpetual feasting and our constant over-indulgence comes at a cost. Our finicky palates are at the root of many chronic health problems that plague our nation. Forget the fat and cholesterol, the high sugar and refined, white flours overflowing in the American diet are inflammatory in our bodies and can produce chronic disease, including heart disease, diabetes and many others. I won’t get into the science here since that’s not the purpose of this article, but there is much research to support what I’m saying. A quick search on inflammatory foods may surprise you.

Food also elicits feelings of pleasure and we tend to gravitate toward those foods that bring us the most pleasure. This isn’t a problem if our indulgence is isolated to feast days, but these foods have become a part of our daily diet and often lead to emotional dependence on the good feelings they produce. Regularly consumed they also replace more nourishing foods in our diet, leaving us depleted of micronutrients that detoxify the body and improve our emotional and mental health. These disordered eating patterns can also lead to excess weight gain, which is associated with its own health risks.

We indulge to pleasure ourselves, comfort ourselves and reward ourselves. Just the other day at work, someone was debating eating a candy bar and another staff member told her, “go ahead, you deserve it.” To which the woman agreed and went off to eat her candy bar. It may sound silly, but it made me wonder what she did to deserve another notch in that chronic inflammatory process. If only we would seek God in the way we seek to pleasure our flesh, I believe our lives would be remarkably changed. It has been the struggle of humanity since God created man. As Luke records the words of Jesus:

Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. Luke 9:23 NIV

The good things of this life were created to be enjoyed, yet as in all things, we are to strive to live in submission to God and not to the cravings of our flesh. The world might say we have no will power, but the truth is our own will is the source of our problems, and it is only when we give up rights to ourself and live by the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, that we might have the self-control to demonstrate the self-restraint and moderation God wants for us, so when we do feast it is truly a celebration of his goodness. This leads us into our final discussion in this series, the fast.